Courtyard.io Sparks NFT Revival in 2025: Where Pokémon Meets Blockchain

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Despite what some may say, the non-fungible token (NFT) sector isn’t dead. No longer at its 2021 media frenzy peak, it’s now showing signs of maturity and attracting real customers

A tokenization platform called Courtyard.io is leading the NFT revival by going beyond vanity profile pictures and extortionately-priced JPEGs. Instead, it seems to have perfectly balanced combining NFT elements with the physical world when catering to a niche community of trading card enthusiasts, especially Pokémon fans.

By using blockchain technology, Courtyard is redefining physical asset ownership and creating a borderless marketplace for hobbyists.

In this article, we explain everything you need to know about the platform.

Key Takeaways

  • Courtyard has established itself as a popular marketplace for trading Pokémon, sports, and wrestling cards.
  • When users send their graded cards to Courtyard, they are tokenized as NFTs, which anyone can own and trade.
  • Courtyard partners with Brinks, which handles the storage and shipment of the physical collectibles listed on Courtyard.
  • Pokémon cards are globally popular but are only sold in 93 out of 195 countries in the world.
  • In January 2025, The Pokémon Company issued a notice to address the product shortage for a newly-released collection due to “high demand impacting availability.”

What Is Courtyard.io?

Courtyard is a tokenization platform and online marketplace where anyone can own and trade physical collectible cards on the Polygon (POL) blockchain.

Since its launch in August 2023, Courtyard has established itself as a popular marketplace for trading Pokémon, sports, and wrestling cards, with total all-time sales exceeding $56.96 million as of February 4, 2025.

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The platform partners with custody solutions provider Brinks, which handles the storage and shipment of listed collectibles. Courtyard only accepts graded cards authenticated by professional grading services such as PSA, Beckett Grading, SGC, CSG, CGC Cards, and HGA.

The Courtyard NFT marketplace was originally built on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. In August 2023, It migrated to the Polygon blockchain. The platform cited easier user onboarding, gasless transactions, and lower fees as key reasons for the move.

At the time of writing, Courtyard does not have a native crypto token. All transactions are conducted using USDC stablecoins.

How Does Courtyard.io Work?

If you want to list items on Courtyard, you first need to send your graded cards to Brinks for authentication and secure storage.

Once an item is successfully authenticated, an NFT is created to represent the physical collectible on the Polygon blockchain. Each NFT contains a unique ID, description, and images associated with the item. The NFT holder is the rightful owner of the underlying asset.

Two Pokémon cards: Snorlax (PSA 10, ) and Charizard ex (BGS 10, ,000) displayed on white pedestals with prices underneath.
Graded Pokémon cards listed on Courtyard.io. Source: Courtyard.io

Once listed, the newly minted NFT is sent to your registered crypto wallet. From there, you can list it on marketplaces, transfer it to another wallet, or redeem the underlying collectible.

Since Courtyard-issued NFTs exist on a public blockchain, you are not obligated to buy, sell, and trade your NFTs on Courtyard’s marketplace. You are free to conduct transactions on peer-to-peer platforms or Polygon-compatible on-chain marketplaces like OpenSea and Magic Eden.

However, redemption of your Courtyard-issued NFTs is only available through Courtyard’s official website. Once redeemed, Brinks will ship the underlying physical collectible to your chosen location after you complete the know-your-customer (KYC) process and pay the shipping fee.

Courtyard explains:

“The NFT acts as a digital voucher for proof of ownership and authenticity and enables the physical asset to be traded without having to be physically moved around or re-authenticated at each sale. At any point, the owner of the NFT can choose to redeem it in exchange for the physical asset.”

A graded 1999 1st Edition Charizard Pokémon card displayed on a stand, with price details and ownership information beside it.
A Courtyard-issued NFT on Polygonscan. Source: Polygonscan

Courtyard offers a 1% revenue share to anyone who tokenizes real-world assets (RWA) on its platform, which means that the original lister earns 1% of every future sale each time their item is resold on-chain.

All Courtyard-issued NFTs are publicly trackable on the Polygon blockchain via blockchain scanner services like Polygonscan. You can check an NFT’s transaction history, smart contract details, ownership records, last selling price, and other key details.

Additionally, you can buy one-card Pokémon packs priced at $25 on Courtyard, paid in USDC stablecoins.

Who Created Courtyard NFT Marketplace?

Courtyard.io was co-founded by Nicolas le Jeune and Paulin Andurand after attending the startup incubator program Y Combinator.

In November 2022, the platform raised $7 million in seed funding from global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates. Other investors who participated in the funding round included Combinator, OpenSea Ventures, VaynerFund, Brinks, Cherry Ventures, and more.

Before co-founding Courtyard, Jeune spent over eight years at Google and Youtube in sales, while Andurand worked as a software engineer at Apple.

Meeting Market Demand: Pokémon Card Collectibles Boom

The physical card collectibles market has grown from a hobby into a booming industry, estimated to be worth around $21.4 billion in 2024 by research firm Market Decipher. Over the past decade, interest in “Pokémon cards” has seen significant growth, as reflected in Google Trends data.

Worldwide search trend for Pokemon cards since January 2015
Worldwide search trend for Pokemon cards since January 2015. Source: Google

Vintage cards from the late 1990s typically boast the highest selling prices on marketplaces like Courtyard, fueled by millennials seeking a dose of childhood nostalgia. Newly released Pokémon card collections are in high demand, too.

In January 2025, The Pokémon Company issued a notice addressing a product shortage for the Scarlet and Violet—Prismatic Evolutions collection due to “high demand impacting availability.” The Japan-based company said that it was printing “at maximum capacity” to meet demand.

Despite strong demand for brands like Pokémon and WWE, the peer-to-peer card collectibles market faces challenges, particularly counterfeits and liquidity constraints. This is where Courtyard steps in by leveraging blockchain technology to offer instant liquidity and enhanced transparency.

The Bottom Line

The NFTs sold on Courtyard do not come with the attention-grabbing price tag that the likes of Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Justin Tron’s Banana. But in an industry where trends come and go in the blink of an eye, establishing a loyal customer base of dedicated hobbyists may not be a bad idea.

Pokémon trading cards remain incredibly popular. Strangely, they are only officially sold in 93 out of 195 countries in the world. For fans residing in the remaining 102 nations, Courtyard’s borderless marketplace offers a new way to access and trade these coveted collectibles.

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Mensholong Lepcha
Crypto & Blockchain Writer
Mensholong Lepcha
Crypto & Blockchain Writer

Mensholong is an experienced crypto and blockchain journalist, now a full-time writer at Techopedia. He has previously contributed news coverage and in-depth market analysis to Capital.com, StockTwits, XBO, and other publications. He began his writing career at Reuters in 2017, covering global equity markets. In his spare time, Mensholong enjoys watching soccer, finding new music, and buying BTC and ETH for his crypto portfolio.